Chapter 211. Nine in the Fifth Place (7)

“Song Woo-Moon! Why are you here...?!”

As he looked around, panicked, Woo-Moon responded coldly.

“If you’re looking for the Sword King, don’t bother. The geezer’s dead.”

The Mu Heons’ hearts skipped a beat.

They could all feel it.

If they confronted Woo-Moon here and now, they would all die. It was as simple as that.

The moment Si-Hyeon and Woo-Moon reconciled and the identities of the Sword and Saber Kings were revealed, the operation had already failed.

‘Then...!’

While Martial Heaven itself was arrogant and proud, the Mu Heons were different.

The Martial Spirits, Mu Heons’ troop[1], was created in order to allow Martial Heaven’s destruction of the

murim

to proceed smoothly. They possessed plenty of the awareness and cowardice that the core Martial Heaven group did not.

‘Flee, now!’

Woo-Moon clearly had to be far past the threshold to the Paragon realm considering that he had defeated the Sword King; even thirty Absolute Masters couldn’t take him down, much less three. The Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth Mu Heons looked at each other for a split second, then immediately fled in different directions.

The life or death of the other Mu Heons was already out of the question, and they didn’t even care to begin with.

“W-w-w-where... w-w-w-w-w-where-e-e a-a-are you-u-u g-g-g-oing?! S-s-s-ave me?!”

Woo-Moon cut off both legs of the screaming Eighth Mu Heon and flew forward.

Ma-Ra, who was always following him like his shadow, moved as well—in the opposite direction this time.

“Did you really think you could escape?!” Woo-Moon sneered.

The Seventh Mu Heon cursed Woo-Moon, wondering why

he

had to be the one the Paragon chased first.

While he wanted to look back to see how close Woo-Moon was, he didn’t dare to do so. He knew that if he slowed down even in the slightest, he would die.

However, there’s always that pesky part of you that makes you look back even when you shouldn’t. And the Seventh Mu Heon looked back just in the nick of time—he was barely able to catch a glimpse of the blade before it glid through his neck.

Swish!

The Seventh Mu Heon’s head shot up into the air with a spray of blood, and Woo-Moon kicked off the ground and flew off to chase after the Tenth Mu Heon.

In the meantime, Ma Ra appeared in front of the Ninth Mu Heon.

“Die.”

With this soft word, Ma-Ra pulled on the Formless Silk that had somehow ended up wrapped around the Ninth Mu Heon’s neck.

Squelch!

The Formless Silk was even sharper than normal thanks to Ma-Ra’s qi, and it severed the Ninth Mu Heon’s neck as if it was nothing but jelly.

“Agh!!”

At the same time, Woo-Moon unleashed his Sword Heart. Since there was no one around him that could threaten him, he felt free to experiment.

The moment Woo-Moon focused his thoughts on the back of the Tenth Mu Heon’s head, a significant amount of the qi in his dantian vanished.

At the exact same time, the sword in Woo-Moon’s heart appeared in the Tenth Mu Heon’s brain. The man died without even being able to scream, his brain turned to mush.

When Woo-Moon returned to where the Eighth Mu Heon was, he saw that the latter was already dead, his body turned to rags by the angry soldier’s spears.

’Is Si-Hyeon doing okay?’

Si-Hyeon and the Saber King were so closely matched that it was difficult to say who was stronger. However, in terms of mental state, Si-Hyeon was in a far better place than the Saber King. After learning that Woo-Moon was alive and confirming his steadfast love for her, Si-Hyeon was full of confidence that she could fight and win.

Meanwhile, the Saber King was in the exact opposite situation.

The original plan had been to use the Justice Coalition and the Hegemon Clan to eliminate or at the very least weaken the Heavenly Demon Cult, while forcing Woo-Moon and Si-Hyeon to kill each other. However, not only had that plan failed spectacularly, but Woo-Moon had also taken down the Sword King without even being injured in the slightest!

Seeing this, the usually domineering Saber King also started to feel as though he might lose.

As thoughts of defeat began to circle in his mind, his movements became passive and heavy, and he began to be pushed back little by little.

That small gap gradually grew as the fight continued. Si-Hyeon could naturally see what was going on, and she had no intention of letting this opportunity go to waste.

Squlech!

“

Ugh.

”

The Saber King let out a small groan.

His shoulder had been pierced by the demonic whip aura that Si-Hyeon had shot at him.

The aura generated by the Immortal Heavenly Demon Divine Art disrupted the flow of his qi, just like the Sword Heart or the Natural Sword would.

Although it wasn’t at the level of the Sword Heart yet, the important thing was that it disrupted the Saber King’s qi. Due to this, the Saber King’s Paragon-level recovery ability wasn’t working properly, and more importantly, he wasn’t able to compensate for his injury by using his qi to move his shoulder.

The scariest part of a Paragon was that even if their limbs were crippled and their hearts were torn, they would be able to compensate for the damage with their qi and continue fighting as if nothing had happened. And with their regeneration ability, as long as they had some time to recover, these injuries meant nothing long-term.

If a Paragon’s dantian was damaged, it would permanently wound them, of course. Even so, they had the heaven-defying ability to create another dantian using the qi that was spread throughout their entire body. Although its efficiency would be lower than that of the original dantian, they would still be able to use it to fight and cultivate.

In other words, Paragons were virtually unkillable... unless their head was crushed to bits.

The brain was a far more complex organ than any other and there was no way to replace its role; it wasn’t something that could be made up for with mere qi like the heart or an arm. Head injuries could be healed in time, just like any other injuries, but if the brain was fully destroyed, that was that.

Unfortunately, the Immortal Heavenly Demon Divine Art interfered with the very root of their recovery ability, their qi control. This effectively prevented both their recovery and their ability to fight while physically crippled.

It was already difficult for the Saber King to move his arm, so he had a harder time defending himself. And now, facing Si-Hyeon, he had one more weakness.

‘It’ll be pretty bad if she stabs me in the heart with that qi of hers.’

Of course, even if his heart was pierced, that didn’t mean that he would die instantly or even at all.

The role of the heart was to circulate blood throughout the body constantly. However, even if it malfunctioned, it wasn’t an immediate issue for a Paragon; it could be replaced using a temporary qi organ that would circulate his blood in its place until it recovered.

But since that took a lot of mental strength, it often couldn’t be done in the middle of a battle, especially a very close battle like he was in right now.

In other words, if Si-Hyeon were to land a blow to his head or heart right now, even the Paragon Saber King would die. And unfortunately for him, while one’s mind is distracted, it’s only natural for the limbs to move a little

too

slowly.

Almost at the same time as his shoulder was pierced, the Saber King slammed his sword into the ground.

Lake-Filling Landslide!

Boom, boom, BOOM!

Three lines of saber force rose from under Si-Hyeon’s feet and blasted into the air.

Immediately, Si-Hyeon dashed into the air; protecting her feet with her wings, she used the rebound force to add to her momentum as she did a backflip in the air and unleashed the Dark Heavenly Demon Claw, her fingers turning into deadly talons.

The five aura claws of the Dark Heavenly Demon Claw whistled through the air as they descended upon the Saber King’s head.

The Saber King’s martial arts were simple, and that simplicity was his advantage. He was able to block the opponent’s flamboyant attacks with his steadfast Vajra Defensive Qi while using the great saber in his hands to attack Si-Hyeon directly.

That was the characteristics of the Hegemon Clan martial arts that the Saber King had learned and perfected himself.

This time again, the Saber King endured the Dark Heavenly Demon Claw with his Vajra Defensive Qi while swinging his great saber at Si-Hyeon’s waist.

Bang!

However, the Saber King had been forced on the defensive and was well and truly shaken. Even with his defenses up, he took quite a bit of damage from the Dark Heavenly Demon Claw. He felt a shiver throughout his entire body, and his complexion turned pale.

Si-Hyeon had to face an attack of her own.

“Ha-eup!”

With a shout, the Saber King amplified the qi imbued into his great saber.

Sensing something was wrong, Si-Hyeon wrapped her wings around her body and simultaneously materialized all the demonic qi she could muster to block the Saber King’s attack.

BOOM!

There was another explosion.

Si-Hyeon bounced off the ground twice and kept going. When she bounced for the third time, she kicked off using the rebound force and dashed toward the Saber King again.

Unlike the Saber King, she didn’t seem to have taken any damage at all.

Bang, bang, bang!

Simultaneously, whips lashed at the Saber King from all directions; all of the feathers on her wings rose and flew toward the Saber King like the Flowers Raining Over the Sky technique of the Sichuan Tang Family.

‘Counterattack!’

The moment he realized it, the Saber King gathered all of his qi in his great saber.

‘Iron-Slashing Hegemon Blade!’

The aura on the Saber King’s saber grew massively larger before compressing back to its original size. Then it grew again, and as it compressed for a second time, he slashed down with earth-rending power.

BOOOM!!!!

The might of the great saber was so incredible that the sky itself trembled as if terrified; the dirt and rocks on the ground rose into the air and were sucked toward the collapsing space around the saber.

“Agk!!”

The vacuum’s strength was so great that the surrounding martial artists weren’t able to keep their footing, and the makeshift barracks at the back collapsed.

Crack, crack, crack!

The demonic qi whips that Si-Hyeon had created got caught in the great saber’s aura and snapped, and the feathers themselves couldn’t overcome the strength either, dissipating.

As everything around it collapsed, the Saber King’s Hegemon Iron Destruction Chop grew closer and closer to Si-Hyeon, and she gathered all of the demonic qi in her entire body, too.

‘Fine, Saber King. I’ll accept your wager! Darkness Drowns My Light!’

Her hands were slim and her skin was as clear as lamb-suet jade. Hher fingers were long and thin, and her nails were dainty, neither too big nor too small. They had a beautiful curve in a blushing pink.

There wasn’t a single wrinkle on her hands, to the point where it seemed as if they were sculpted from marble rather than being human hands.

Words simply could not describe how beautiful these hands were.

Her hands moved slowly, confronting the approaching Saber King’s great saber, which was moving with unprecedented strength.

A black aura rippled in front of her hands. Then, those surrounding them were able to witness something they had never seen in their entire lives—pure nothingness. All light vanished around them, leaving nothing but darkness. Even the sun was nowhere to be seen.

For just a single moment.

When the light reappeared, what was left under the hot midday sun was a slightly pale Si-Hyeon and a completely bloodied Saber King.

“

Cough... cough, cough!

W-what a... terrifying... technique.”

The Saber King fell to one knee.

“This is a technique I created myself so I could take revenge on you all.”

The Saber King’s stature had diminished.

At a closer look, it was apparent that his body had been corroded by the light-devouring darkness, and most of his skin and flesh had disappeared.

“It’s over now, Saber King.”

‘North Wind.’

As North Wind blew out from the tip of Woo-Moon’s sword, the sixty or so people in front of him, including the Hegemon Clan warriors and the Mu Heons, turned into blocks of ice and their limbs fell off.

As Woo-Moon’s cultivation improved, the Gentle Celestial Sword’s techniques also evolved, and now each technique had additional effects.

When he unleashed Raging Wind, a real tornado formed, tearing flesh off and shattering bones. When Heavy Rain came in, it wasn’t just a rain of sword qi; the actual moisture in the air would gather and form real raindrops. Each of those raindrops had the power to pierce through human bodies due to Woo-Moon’s sword qi being imbued into them.

North Wind and Cold Snow now contained a frigid qi that was very much like the frigid yin qi of the North Sea Ice Palace, which had the effect of turning the target into a block of ice.

“Ugh!”

Crack.

Even outside of North Wind’s actual striking range, another forty people were frozen to the bone.

Ccrack!! Crunch!

None of them died right away. However, those who tried to move without thawing themselves out first had their legs crumble to pieces underneath them.

“Agh!!!”

Well, that didn’t mean they could just choose not to move. The frigid yin qi had already spread throughout their body and was turning them to ice not just on the outside but all the way through, even their heart and brain. Either way, they’d die

Having killed over a hundred people in a single blow, Woo-Moon proceeded to launch a Dragon Bind Tiger Strike.

ROAR!

The roar of the dragon and the howl of the tiger echoed at the same time.

“Agk!”

“AGHHH!”

The enemies around Woo-Moon clutched their ears in agony. The twenty or so people closest to him immediately died, their internal organs ruptured by the sheer power of the roar. Meanwhile, the thirty or so people outside of the technique’s actual range rolled across the ground with blood flowing out of their ears.

Meow?

Eun-Ah, who was fighting far away, suddenly perked up her ears and looked toward Woo-Moon.

1. Remember, Mu Heon is Martial Soul/Spirit in Korean. ☜